Who's Afraid of Jane Austen? by Henry Hitchings

It's hard to imagine enjoying the kind of dinner parties that Henry Hitchings attends, which sound more like Oxbridge interviews than social gatherings. This might explain his suggestion that ignorant and aspirational guests prepare for such events by memorising trivia about Tolstoy's first bicycle, and that they do so while also attempting to "kick against... received wisdom about authors." Hitching's whistlestop literary guide is often insightful and his advice on talking to actors is hilariously deadpan. But his concern to make unread literature "cool" is trying, and this book might have benefited from a little more succinctness.